Tintin in Tibet
Tintin in Tibet (Tintin au Tibet) | |
---|---|
Date | 1960 |
Series | The Adventures of Tintin |
Publisher | Casterman |
Creative team | |
Creator | Hergé |
Original publication | |
Published in | Tintin magazine |
Issues | 523 – 585 |
Date of publication | 17 September 1958 – 25 November 1959 |
Language | French |
Translation | |
Publisher | Methuen |
Date | 1962 |
Translator |
|
Chronology | |
Preceded by | The Red Sea Sharks (1958) |
Followed by | The Castafiore Emerald (1963) |
Tintin in Tibet (French: Tintin au Tibet) is the twentieth volume of .
Following
Synopsis
While on holiday at a resort in the
The porters abandon the group in fear when mysterious tracks are found, while Tintin, Haddock and Tharkey go on and eventually reach the crash site. Tintin sets off with Snowy to trace Chang's steps, and finds a cave where Chang has carved his name on a rock. On leaving the cave, he encounters a snowstorm and glimpses what seems to be a human silhouette. Tharkey believes that Tintin saw the Yeti and convinces him to abandon his friend and return with him to Nepal, since the area is too large to search. Tintin spots a scarf on a cliff face, concludes Chang is nearby, and continues with only the Captain. While attempting to scale a cliff face, Haddock slips and hangs out of reach, imperilling Tintin, who is tied to him. He tells Tintin to cut the rope to save himself, but Tintin refuses. Haddock tries to cut it himself, but drops his knife, alerting Tharkey, who has returned in time to rescue them. They try to camp for the night but lose their tent and must trek onwards, unable to sleep lest they freeze, arriving within sight of the Buddhist monastery of Khor-Biyong before being caught in an avalanche.[2]
They arrive at a cave. Tintin ventures inside and finds Chang, who is feverish and shaking. The Yeti suddenly appears, revealed as a large anthropoid, reacting with anger at Tintin's attempt to take Chang. As it lunges at Tintin, the flash bulb of Tintin's camera goes off, and scares the Yeti away. Chang tells Tintin that the Yeti saved his life after the crash. Upon returning to inhabited lands, the friends are surprised to be met by the Grand Abbot, who presents Tintin with a khata scarf in honour of the bravery he has shown for his friend Chang. As the party travels home, Chang muses that the Yeti is not a wild animal, but has a human soul. The Yeti sadly watches their departure from a distance.[4]
History
Background and early ideas
In October 1957,
A collaborator of Hergé's, Jacques Van Melkebeke, had suggested in 1954 to set a story in Tibet, likely influenced by the play he adapted for Hergé in the 1940s, M. Boullock a disparu (Mr. Boullock's Disappearance).[13] Bernard Heuvelmans, a cryptozoologist who had helped Hergé envision lunar exploration for the two-part Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon, had given him a copy of his book Sur la piste des bêtes ignorées (On the Trail of Unknown Animals) in 1955,[14] inscribing on the inside the suggestion that one day Tintin should meet the Yeti.[11] By 1958, Hergé decided that Tibet would be the setting of Tintin's next Adventure. Initial ideas for the title were Le museau de la vache (The Cow's Snout), Le museau de l'ours (The Bear's Snout), and Le museau du yak (The Yak's Snout), all of which refer to the mountain in the latter part of the story.[15] Although it was initially claimed that "market research" chose the title Tintin in Tibet suggesting sales would be better if the book used Tintin's name in the title, entertainment producer and author Harry Thompson suggested "the title reflected the solo nature of [Tintin's] undertaking".[16]
Hergé's psychological problems
Hergé reached a particularly traumatic period in his life and suffered a mental breakdown. In 1956, he realised that he had fallen out of love with his wife
"It meant turning upside down all my values—what a shock! This was a serious moral crisis: I was married, and I loved someone else; life seemed impossible with my wife, but on the other hand I had this scout-like idea of giving my word for ever. It was a real catastrophe. I was completely torn up".[22]
During this period, Hergé had recurrent nightmares where he faced images of what he described as "the beauty and cruelty of white"—visions of white and snow that he could not explain.[23] As he later told Sadoul:
"At the time, I was going through a time of real crisis and my dreams were nearly always white dreams. And they were extremely distressing. I took note of them and remember one where I was in a kind of tower made up of a series of ramps. Dead leaves were falling and covering everything. At a particular moment, in an immaculately white alcove, a white skeleton appeared that tried to catch me. And then instantly everything around me became white".[22]
At the advice of his former editor
Although Hergé was tempted to abandon Tintin at Riklin's suggestion, devoting himself instead to his hobby of abstract art, he felt that doing so would be an acceptance of failure.[27] In the end, he left his wife so that he could marry Fanny Vlaminck, and continued work on Tintin in Tibet,[28] trusting that completing the book would exorcise the demons he felt possessed him.[29] "It was a brave decision, and a good one", said British Tintin expert Michael Farr. "Few problems, psychological included, are solved by abandoning them".[9] Thompson noted: "It was ironic, but not perhaps unpredictable, that faced with the moral dilemma posed by Riklin, Hergé chose to keep his Scout's word of honour to Tintin, but not to Germaine".[27][c] Belgian Tintin expert Philippe Goddin summarised: "[Hergé] sought to regain a lost equilibrium, that he imposes on his hero a desire to seek purity ... considering it necessary for Tintin to go through the intimate experience of distress and loneliness ... and discover himself".[32]
Influences
In creating Tintin in Tibet, Hergé drew upon a range of influences. Setting it in the Himalayas, a snow-covered environment, followed his recurring dreams of whiteness and his need to create an adventure that "must be a solo voyage of redemption" from the "whiteness of guilt".[33] The idea of a solo voyage led to Tintin being accompanied only by Snowy, their guide, and a reluctant Haddock—who supplies the needed counterpoint and humour.[34]
While considering the character of Chang, absent since The Blue Lotus,[9] Hergé thought of his artistic Chinese friend Zhang Chongren,[35] whom he had not seen since the days of their friendship over twenty years earlier. Hergé and Zhang used to spend every Sunday together, during which Hergé learned much about Chinese culture for his work on The Blue Lotus.[36][d] Later, Zhang moved back to his homeland and Hergé lost contact with his friend after the Japanese invasion of China in 1937.[37] Hergé felt Chang and Tintin must be reunited, just as he hoped to see his friend again some day.[38][e]
Hergé read a variety of books about Tibet for this project:
To learn about the Yeti, which he depicted as a benevolent creature, Hergé contacted his friend Bernard Heuvelmans, the author of On the Trail of Unknown Animals.
Publication
Studios Hergé serialised Tintin in Tibet weekly from September 1958 to November 1959, two pages per week, in Tintin magazine.[50] Because of his desire for accuracy, Hergé added the logo of Air India to the airliner crash debris. A representative of Air India complained to Hergé about the adverse publicity the airline might suffer, arguing: "It's scandalous, none of our aircraft has ever crashed; you have done us a considerable wrong". Air India had cooperated with Hergé, aiding his research by providing him reading material, contemporary photographs, and film footage of India and Nepal, particularly Delhi and Kathmandu.[51][g] While the crashed aircraft's tail number remained "VT", the country code for Indian aircraft, Hergé agreed to change the airline logo in the published edition to the fictional Sari-Airways, dryly noting that there were so many Indian airlines it was possible that there really was a Sari-Airways.[53]
While developing the story, members of the Studios confronted Hergé with concerns about elements of Tintin in Tibet. Bob de Moor feared the scene in which Haddock crashes into a stupa was disrespectful to Buddhists.[54] Jacques van Melkebeke suggested that the Yeti not be depicted to create a sense of enigma; Hergé disagreed, believing that it would disappoint his child readers.[54]
After the serial concluded, Hergé worked with his publisher, Casterman, to produce the work in book form. Hergé's original design for the front cover featured Tintin and his expedition standing on a backdrop of pure white.[55] Casterman deemed it too abstract, so Hergé added a mountain range at the top; biographer Benoît Peeters expressed that in doing so, the image was deprived of some of its "strength and originality".[54]
During production, Hergé kept abreast of the turbulent political developments in Tibet.[56] In March 1959, Tibet's foremost political and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled the region into self-imposed exile in India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising.[57] In May 2001, when Tintin in Tibet was published in China, state authorities renamed it Tintin in Chinese Tibet. When Casterman and the Hergé Foundation protested, the authorities restored the book's original title.[58]
Reception
Hergé came to see Tintin in Tibet as his favourite volume in The Adventures of Tintin.[59] He thought it an ode to friendship, composed "under the double sign of tenacity and friendship":[h] "It's a story of friendship", Hergé said about his book years later, "the way people say, 'It's a love story'".[61][i]
Critical analysis
Tintin in Tibet is well received by critics from the comics and literary fields. Farr calls it "exceptional in many respects, standing out among the twenty-three completed Tintin adventures ... an assertion of the incorruptible value of bonds of friendship".
Literary critic Jean-Marie Apostolidès, in a psychoanalytical analysis of Tintin in Tibet, observes that Tintin is more firmly in control of the plot than he was in earlier adventures. Apostolidès notes that the character displays worry and emotion not present previously, something he suggested showed Tintin sorting out the problems that he faced in life.[66] In his analysis, he calls Tintin a "foundling" and his friend Chang "the lost child" and "Tintin's twin ... the heroes have to struggle to great heights to escape the temporality and pervasive values of [the] universe".[67] He saw the Yeti, who "internalises certain human characteristics", as more complex than Hergé's previous bestial character, Ranko in The Black Island:[68] "The monster loves Chang with a love as unconditional as Tintin's love for his friend".[69]
The literary analysis of Tom McCarthy compares Tintin's quest to Hergé's conquest of his own fear and guilt, writing, "this is the moira of Hergé's own white mythology, his anaemic destiny: to become Sarrasine to Tintin's la Zambinella".[j] McCarthy suggested the "icy, white expanses of Hergé's nightmares [may] really have their analogue in his own hero", especially as "Tintin represents an unattainable goal of goodness, cleanness, authenticity".[71]
Hergé biographer Pierre Assouline opines that the work is "a portrait of the artist at a turning point" in his life.[72] He believes that it "stands alone" in The Adventures of Tintin due to its lack of antagonist and few characters, describing it as "a spiritual quest" where the "only conflict is between man and nature ... [Hergé] put the best of himself into Tintin in Tibet".[72] Referring to its "stripped-bare story and archetypal clarity",[73] Benoît Peeters believes Tintin in Tibet to be one of the two "pivotal" books in the series, alongside The Blue Lotus, and deems it poignant that Chang features in both.[74] He also suggests that Hergé included the benevolent Yeti to "make up for the interminable massacre" of animals in the second Tintin adventure, Tintin in the Congo,[75] and that the sadness the Yeti experienced at the story's end reflected Hergé's feelings about his separation from Germaine.[76] Peeters concluded: "Even more than Art Spiegelman's Maus, Tintin in Tibet is perhaps the most moving book in the history of the comic strip".[76]
Awards
At a ceremony in Brussels on 1 June 2006, the Dalai Lama bestowed the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT)'s Light of Truth Award upon the Hergé Foundation in recognition of Tintin in Tibet, which introduced the region to audiences across the globe.[77] ICT executive director Tsering Jampa said: "For many, Hergé's depiction of Tibet was their introduction to the awe-inspiring landscape and culture of Tibet".[77] During the ceremony, copies of Tintin in Tibet in the Esperanto language (Tinĉjo en Tibeto) were distributed.[78] Accepting the award for the foundation, Hergé's widow Fanny Rodwell[k] said: "We never thought that this story of friendship would have a resonance more than 40 years later".[78]
Adaptations
Eight years after Hergé's death, Tintin in Tibet was adapted into an episode of
Tintin and I (2003), a documentary by Danish director Anders Høgsbro Østergaard based on Numa Sadoul's 1971 interview with Hergé, includes restored portions of the interview that Hergé had heavily edited and rewritten in Sadoul's book.[83] With full access to the audio recordings, the filmmaker explored the personal issues that the author had while he was creating Tintin in Tibet and how they drove him to create what is now regarded as his most personal adventure.[84]
As the centenary of Hergé's birth approached in 2007, Tintin remained popular.
Notes
- ^ Regarding Tintin in Tibet being the only Tintin story without an antagonist, Farr noted, "Even The Castafiore Emerald has a culpable magpie".[9]
- ^ Other discarded story ideas included a duck with an SOS attached landing on a steamer, a forgotten people on a Pacific island held in a concentration camp,[11] and the abandoned spy thriller Le Thermozéro.[12]
- ^ Though separated from her, Hergé visited Germaine every Monday.[30] Their divorce became final seventeen years later, in 1977.[31]
- ^ For example, Zhang taught Hergé Chinese calligraphy, which explains Hergé's distinctive lettering proficiency best seen in the titles of any Tintin cover.[36]
- ^ Two years before Hergé's death in 1983, Zhang was located and reunited with Hergé in Brussels.[39]
- ^ The author of The Third Eye, which purported to be the autobiography of a monk born in Tibet, was unmasked as a British plumber who decided in 1958 to write the bestseller.[40]
- ^ Air India remained in the storyline; the airline flew Tintin, Snowy and Haddock from Europe to Delhi and Kathmandu.[52]
- ^ As quoted in Sadoul,[22] Hergé's inscription in Raymond Leblanc's copy of Tintin in Tibet.[60]
- ^ Hergé said this in his letter to Jean Toulat, 16 January 1975.[62]
- ^ McCarthy is referring to characters Ernest-Jean Sarrasine and his love Zambinella in Honoré de Balzac's Sarrasine.[70] Belgian journalist Pol Vandromme also compared Hergé to Balzac in Le Monde de Tintin, published in 1959.[55]
- ^ Fanny Vlaminck married Nick Rodwell, Studio Hergé's London merchandising agent and owner of the Covent Garden Tintin Shop in 1993.[79]
References
Citations
- ^ Hergé 1962, pp. 1–27.
- ^ Hergé 1962, pp. 26–44.
- ^ Hergé 1962, pp. 44–54.
- ^ Hergé 1962, pp. 54–62.
- ^ Goddin 2011, pp. 93–94; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 72.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 171; Farr 2001, p. 162; Assouline 2009, p. 187; Goddin 2011, p. 96.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 171; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, pp. 72–73; Assouline 2009, p. 187; Goddin 2011, p. 94; Peeters 2012, p. 270.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 171; Peeters 1989, p. 110; Assouline 2009, p. 191; Goddin 2011, p. 101.
- ^ a b c d Farr 2001, p. 161.
- ^ Thompson 1991, pp. 171–172.
- ^ a b Goddin 2011, p. 96.
- ^ Goddin 2011, pp. 98, 116–118; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 72.
- ^ Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, pp. 73–74, 91; Peeters 2012, p. 271.
- ^ a b Thompson 1991, p. 173; Farr 2001, p. 165; Assouline 2009, p. 187; Peeters 2012, p. 272; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 74.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 173; Farr 2001, p. 168; Assouline 2009, p. 191; Goddin 2011, pp. 101–103; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 73.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 173.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 168; Peeters 1989, p. 110; Farr 2001, p. 161; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, pp. 15, 74; Goddin 2011, p. 101; Peeters 2012, p. 260.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 168; Farr 2001, p. 161.
- ^ Peeters 2012, p. 280.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 161; Assouline 2009, p. 186; Goddin 2011, p. 109.
- ^ Thompson 1991, pp. 168, 170; Farr 2001, p. 161.
- ^ a b c Sadoul 1975.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 170; Goddin 2011, p. 104; Sadoul 1975.
- ^ Goddin 2011, p. 108; McCarthy 2006, p. 90; Assouline 2009, pp. 190–191; Peeters 2012, pp. 274, 278; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, pp. 15, 74.
- ^ Goddin 2011, p. 108.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 171; Farr 2001, p. 161; Assouline 2009, p. 191; Goddin 2011, p. 108.
- ^ a b c Thompson 1991, p. 171.
- ^ Thompson 1991, pp. 171, 174; Farr 2001, p. 161; Assouline 2009, p. 191; Goddin 2011, p. 109; Peeters 2012, pp. 278–279.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 172; Peeters 1989, p. 110; Goddin 2011, p. 108; Assouline 2009, p. 191.
- ^ Assouline 2009, p. 186.
- ^ Peeters 2012, p. 328; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 16.
- ^ Goddin 2011, pp. 104, 107.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 172.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 172; Peeters 1989, p. 110; Farr 2001, p. 161.
- ^ McCarthy 2006, pp. 47–48.
- ^ a b Peeters 2012, pp. 74–76.
- ^ Lopez 1999, p. 212; Thompson 1991, p. 172; Goddin 2011, p. 101; Peeters 2012, pp. 318–321.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 172; Goddin 2011, p. 101; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 73.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 162; McCarthy 2006, p. 59; Peeters 2012, pp. 318–321.
- ^ a b Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 75.
- ^ Assouline 2009, pp. 185–186; Peeters 2012, p. 273; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Assouline 2009, p. 188.
- ^ Farr 2001, pp. 166–168.
- ^ Thompson 1991, pp. 172–173.
- ^ Peeters 1989, p. 112; Farr 2001, p. 165; Peeters 2012, p. 271; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 74; Goddin 2011, p. 96.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 165; Peeters 2012, pp. 272–273.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 173; Farr 2001, p. 165.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 162.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 162; Thompson 1991, p. 174; Peeters 1989, p. 112; Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 74.
- ^ Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 72; Thompson 1991, p. 130.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 168; Peeters 1989, p. 112; Goddin 2011, p. 103.
- ^ Hergé 1962, p. 9.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 168; Peeters 1989, p. 112.
- ^ a b c Peeters 2012, p. 279.
- ^ a b Goddin 2011, p. 116.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 162; Goddin 2011, p. 107.
- ^ Farr 2001, p. 162; French 2009; Le Soir 23 May 2001.
- ^ Le Soir 23 May 2001; BBC News 2 June 2006.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 173; Assouline 2009, p. 189.
- ^ Assouline 2009, pp. 191, 251.
- ^ Assouline 2009, p. 192; McCarthy 2006, p. 57.
- ^ Assouline 2009, pp. 192, 251.
- ^ Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 74.
- ^ Thompson 1991, pp. 173–174.
- ^ Lopez 1999, p. 212.
- ^ Apostolidès 2010, p. 203.
- ^ Apostolidès 2010, p. 214.
- ^ Apostolidès 2010, pp. 215–216.
- ^ Apostolidès 2010, p. 220.
- ^ McCarthy 2006, p. 160.
- ^ McCarthy 2006, pp. 160–161.
- ^ a b Assouline 2009, p. 191.
- ^ Peeters 2012, p. 274.
- ^ Peeters 2012, p. 273.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 173; Peeters 2012, p. 279.
- ^ a b Peeters 2012, p. 281.
- ^ a b Int'l Campaign for Tibet 17 May 2006.
- ^ a b BBC News 2 June 2006.
- ^ Thompson 1991, pp. 42, 210–211; Pignal 2010.
- ^ Lofficier & Lofficier 2002, p. 90.
- ^ BBC Radio 4 1993.
- ^ MobyGames.com 1995.
- ^ Thompson 1991, p. 198; Peeters 2012, pp. 315–317; PBS.com 2006.
- ^ Peeters 2012, pp. 315–317; PBS.com 2006.
- ^ Pollard 2007.
- ^ Billington 2005; YoungVic.org 2005; Barbican 2005.
- ^ Smurthwaite 2007; SoniaFriedman.com 2007.
- ^ Arte 2010.
- ^ Musée Hergé 2012.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0-8047-6031-7.
- ISBN 978-0-19-539759-8.
- Billington, Michael (15 December 2005). "Hergé's Adventures of Tintin". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-7195-5522-0.
- French, Patrick (9 March 2009). "The view from the roof of the world: It's 50 years since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 6 September 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-86719-763-1.
- ISBN 978-1-4052-0631-0.
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- ISBN 978-1-86207-831-4.
- ISBN 978-0-416-14882-4.
- ISBN 978-1-4214-0454-7.
- Pignal, Stanley (7 May 2010). "Fans of Tintin cry foul". Financial Times. London. Archived from the original on 13 October 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- Pollard, Lawrence (22 May 2007). "Belgium honours Tintin's creator". BBC News. London. Archived from the original on 15 July 2007. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-2-08-080052-7.
- Smurthwaite, Nick (13 December 2007). "Hergé's Adventure of Tintin". The Stage. London. Archived from the original on 3 May 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-340-52393-3.
- "Dalai Lama honours Tintin and Tutu". BBC News. London. 2 June 2006. Archived from the original on 9 June 2006. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
- "Hergé – The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet". BBC Radio 4. 1993. Archived from the original on 1 December 2011. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
- "Hergé's Adventures of Tintin: A Young Vic Production". Barbican Centre. 1 December 2005. Archived from the original on 4 July 2007. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
- "Hergé's Adventures of Tintin [Musical]". Sonia Friedman Productions Productions. November 2007. Archived from the original on 21 November 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
- "Musée Hergé Temporary exhibition: Into Tibet with Tintin". Musée Hergé. May 2012. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
- "Népal: Tintin au Tibet". Arte. Sur les traces de Tintin. 10 December 2010. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
- "Rufus Norris to direct World Premiere of Tintin". Young Vic. November 2005. Archived from the original on 9 November 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2006.
- "Partis à la conquête du marché chinois, Tintin et Milou tombent sur un os" [Set Out to Conquer the Chinese Market, Tintin and Snowy Fall on a Bone]. Le Soir (in French). Brussels. 23 May 2001. Archived from the original on 5 August 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
- "Tintin and I: Film Description". PBS. 11 July 2006. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
- "Tintin in Tibet (1995)". MobyGames. 1995. Archived from the original on 24 December 2005. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
- "Tutu and Tintin to be honoured by Dalai Lama". Washington, D.C.: International Campaign for Tibet. 17 May 2006. Archived from the original on 1 September 2006. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
External links
- Tintin in Tibet at the Official Tintin Website
- Tintin in Tibet at Tintinologist.org